Incidental Discovery of a Morgagni Hernia in a 72-Year-Old Woman After COVID-19 Pneumonia: A Case Report.

Morgagni hernia is a rare condition characterized by a congenital retrosternal defect of the diaphragm, leading to the protrusion of abdominal organs into the thoracic cavity. Here, we report the case of a 72-year-old woman with a Morgagni hernia incidentally discovered during evaluation for persistent dyspnea following COVID-19 pneumonia. The diagnosis was made by imaging, including a chest X-ray and a thoracic CT scan, which showed an ascent of the transverse colon and omentum through an anterior retrosternal defect. Surgical exploration via right posterolateral thoracotomy revealed an anterior diaphragmatic hernia with a small defect containing the greater omentum and transverse colon, which was repaired by resecting the hernia sac and closing the diaphragmatic defect by fixing the anterior rim of the diaphragm to the retrosternal fascia with interrupted silk sutures. Postoperative recovery was uneventful, and follow-up examinations revealed no abnormalities on chest X-rays obtained at one, three, and six months. This case highlights the incidental discovery and successful surgical management of a Morgagni hernia in an elderly patient through a thoracic approach.

Surgical management of mediastinal mature cystic teratoma of the elderly remaining asymptomatic.

BACKGROUND: Mediastinal teratoma is an uncommon disease, nevertheless they represent the most common mediastinal germ cell tumors. It may grow silently for several years and remain undiagnosed until the occurrence of a complication. AIM: The main aim of this article is to illustrate the silent evolution of an anterior mediastinal teratoma for over 70 years without presenting any notable complications. CASE PRESENTATION: We present the case of a 70-year-old female, treated for hypertension referred to our department for managing a voluminous mediastinal mass, discovered fortuitously by a general practitioner in a chest X-ray. The anamnesis didn't relate any chest pain, cough, dyspnea nor hemoptysis. The clinical examination, in particular pleuropulmonary, was unremarkable. The workup (Chest X-Ray and CT scan) demonstrated a voluminous pleural mass at the expense of the right mediastinal pleura, rounded in shape, with calcified wall and fluid content. Blood tests did not demonstrate eosinophilia, and hydatid IgG serology was negative. serum human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and alpha fetoprotein (AFP) levels were found to be normal. The patient subsequently underwent a right posterolateral thoracotomy with resection of the lesion. The mass was dissected very carefully and then resected in toto. The macroscopic and microscopic histological examination demonstrated a mature cystic teratoma. Surgical resection was an adequate treatment and the prognosis was excellent for the patient. CONCLUSION: Cystic mature teratomas are rare thoracic tumors, often recognized by radiological examination. This article relates the silent evolution that a teratoma could have, and the late appearance of symptoms that it could have.

What Open-Lung Biopsy Teaches Us about ARDS in COVID-19 Patients: Mechanisms, Pathology, and Therapeutic Implications.

Difficulties have risen while managing Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) caused by COVID-19, although it meets the Berlin definition. Severe hypoxemia with near-normal compliance was noted along with coagulopathy. Understanding the precise pathophysiology of this atypical ARDS will assist researchers and physicians in improving their therapeutic approach. Previous work is limited to postmortem studies, while our report addresses patients under protective lung mechanical ventilation. An open-lung minithoracotomy was performed in 3 patients who developed ARDS related to COVID-19 and were admitted to the intensive care unit to carry out a pathological and microbiological analysis on lung tissue biopsy. Diffused alveolar damage with hyaline membranes was found, as well as plurifocal fibrin microthrombi and vascular congestion in all patients' specimens. Microbiological cultures were negative, whereas qualitative Reversed Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) detected SARS-CoV-2 in the pulmonary parenchyma and pleural fluid in two patients. COVID-19 causes progressive ARDS with onset of severe hypoxemia, underlying a dual mechanism: shunt effect through diffused alveolar damage and dead space effect through thrombotic injuries in microvascular beds. It seems reasonable to manage this ventilation-perfusion ratio mismatch using a high dose of anticoagulant combined with glucocorticoids.

[Spontaneous pneumothorax: unusual manifestation of pulmonary hamartochondroma]. / Pneumothorax spontané: mode de révélation inhabituel d'un hamartochondrome pulmonaire.

Hamartochondroma is a benign tumor of the tracheobronchial tree, often found incidentally and rarely symptomatic. It is more common in men than in women. Its radiological aspect is often evocative. Surgery is indicated for large and/or symptomatic tumors. Histological diagnosis usually poses no difficulty We report the case of a 30-year-old young patient with no particular past medical history and with spontaneous pneumothorax revealing a large sized hamartochondroma. This rare association could be explained by the fact that tumors of fairly anarchic composition may contain cyst formations that may rupture into the pleura causing effusions.

Mediastinal hydatid cyst: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: Mediastinal localization of hydatidosis is very rare even in endemic areas. The diagnosis is based on typical clinical and radiological criteria. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of a mediastinal location of hydatidosis in a 60-year-old Arab man admitted for chest pain. The chest radiograph showed a rounded and homogeneous opacity. Computed tomography showed a right mediastinal cyst, without other thoracic or abdominal sites. Through a posterolateral thoracotomy, we found a cystic mass in the posterior mediastinum. The patient received a cystectomy with medical treatment based on albendazole. He improved a few weeks later. CONCLUSION: Mediastinal cysts remain rare, even in endemic countries, which makes initial diagnosis difficult. Our observation shows the importance of keeping this diagnosis in mind when a patient presents with signs of mediastinal compression.

Pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: The pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma is a rare vascular intermediate malignancy tumour. CASE PRESENTATION: A 45-year-old man, he shows an isolated chronic cough with a preserved general state of health. The thoracoabdominal Computed tomography showed three well limited opacities of the right lung, among them one shows some calcifications; which we entirely resected by enucleation after a pneumotomy. The histologic examination with immunomarking led to an epithelioid hemangioendothelioma. CONCLUSIONS: The pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma is a tumour of unpredictable prognosis, bad when linked to the plurifocal and symptomatic forms.

Endobronchial lipoma a rare cause of pleural empyema: a case report.

Benign neoplasm of the endobronchial tree is quite rare, while endobronchial lipoma is extremely rare. The irreversible pulmonary damage is due to progressive bronchial obstruction; even so, pleural empyema is exceptionally encountered in a case of endobronchial lipoma. We report a case of a 47-year-old man who had left lung pneumonia with hemoptysis. The chest computed tomography showed cystic bronchiectasis with pleural effusion, Flexible bronchoscopy revealed a round tumor on the left main bronchus.

Primary mediastinal leiomyoma: a case report.

Leiomyoma of the mediastinum is rare. We report a case of a 57-year-old woman with a cervical mass diving to the intrathoracic. Chest radiography and computed tomography revealed a mass in the right superior mediastinum. The tumor was enucleated by cervicotomy. Histologically, the tumor was diagnosed as leiomyoma.